The present invention relates to a copying apparatus in general, and more particularly to a copying apparatus which is especially suited for selectively copying one or both sides of an original onto one or both sides of a copy sheet or carrier.
Copying apparatus has been proposed in the prior art in which individual copy sheets are transported out of a receptacle and advanced to a copy station where a copy is made onto one side of the copy sheet which thereupon is advanced to an outlet receptacle and stacked therein in reversed or turned relationship. The receptacles are each in form of detachable cassettes or the like. If it is desired to provide a copy on the opposite (heretofore blank) side of the copy carrier or sheets in the outlet receptacle, then the outlet receptacle is removed and is placed into the machine in place of the inlet receptacle so that copy sheets are now withdrawn from the previous outlet (now inlet) receptacle and again fed to the copying station. Thus, as these copy sheets pass through the machine for a second time, their previously blank side is also provided with a copy.
This prior-art proposal has the disadvantage that the original to be copied must be turned over manually, and also that the cassettes which constitute the inlet and outlet receptacles must be manually detached and exchanged, one for the other. A fully automatic operation, requiring no manual intervention irrespective of whether one or both sides of the original are to be copied onto one or both sides of a copy carrier or sheet, is impossible with the prior-art proposal.